Her Pound Of Flesh
Ever wonder how things get done in Olympia? Sometimes it’s with red meat - and flowers.
Consider the plight of Jim West, the Spokane Republican. Short one vote, he asked his Senate colleague Ann Anderson, R-Acme, for help. But he figured she’s still mad at him after last year’s primary election, when the two ran against each other for lieutenant governor.
“I asked her, what’s it going to take?,” West said. “She said: ‘A pound of flesh. I want your heart.”’ So it was off to the grocery store for West. “I got her a pound of flank steak and a bouquet of flowers.”
But Anderson didn’t eat the steak. “What am I going to do when I get home at 10 o’clock at night, start up the barbecue and wake up my kid?”
She gave it to her staff for a barbecue party.
Anderson said she would have given West the vote anyway. “I am not a problem child.”
Rules are made to be broken, at least in the Legislature.
Take the supposed sanctity of the will of the voters expressed in initiatives. There have been many pleas to alter the state’s tax and spending limit approved by 51 percent of the voters in 1993.
GOP leaders of both houses have turned down every entreaty, arguing the will of the voters can’t be thwarted - unless, of course, it’s to cut taxes, apparently.
The same protectors of I-601 recently voted to cut the tax imposed by voters on soda pop syrup.
Voters approved the tax with 64 percent of the vote statewide in 1994, a high-water mark of the state’s anti-tax tide. The money is spent on anti-drug and anti-crime programs.
Republicans who voted to cut the tax anyway said voters didn’t know what they were doing when they voted yes, or that the ballot title was “sugar coated.” So they cut the tax rate in half.
Former Gov. Mike Lowry, in the Capitol recently, couldn’t believe it. He has asked the Legislature repeatedly to amend 601 to cushion budget cuts that hurt the poor.
“But 601 is written on stone tablets,” he said, smacking the limestone columns of the capitol building.
Of all the issues lawmakers have wrestled with this session, from the state budget to the gas tax, none has put bigger pressure on them than the Seahawks stadium, some say.
“It’s the angry white males,” said Rep. Brad Benson, R-Spokane. Benson said about 80 of his 120 or so calls a day are about the stadium.
Lawmakers also have been hosed down with e-mail on the issue.
“Please add this to what must be a rather large list of correspondence asking you to pull your heads out … and fund the damn stadium,” read a typical missive.
“At least give the voters a chance. If you lose the team now, you can kiss any future chance goodbye!” Opponents were equally adamant.
“Stop wasting public time on the stadium dealings. You need to get a state budget done. Not dance for the pleasure of a billionaire and his bought and brain-washed sports fanatics. Get your priorities straight.”
Others looked ahead to the referendum on the stadium.
“If Paul Allen will spend $20 million to buy this team, how much do you think he will spend on propaganda to get a yes vote from the sheeple?” Some e-mails were more like electronic primal screams. “The governor’s servile posture with Paul Allen is nauseating, an insult to the office of governor. And guess who will end up holding the bag? The taxpayer, because only a handful of legislators are seeing this scam for what it really is.”
Some took a more plaintive tone.
“So who cares about the potholes in the bad roads, poor maintenance, health crises, homeless people, jobless people, traffic nightmares. Or welfare for people with less than a few billion dollars worth of assets.”
, DataTimes